Ruiz M Candela, Pla Concepción, Fernandez-Cortes Angel, Benavente David
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Alicante, C. San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain.
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Alicante, C. San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 May 20;926:171837. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171837. Epub 2024 Mar 19.
Our research aims to assess the complex interactions between the elements that constitute and influence a cave system through the analysis of an extensive dataset of climatic and environmental parameters (Rn, CO, drip rates, chemical composition, and environmental isotopes) measured in air, water, and solid in the Rull Cave (southeastern Spain). Of particular importance is understanding the effect of rainfall and temperature on water and gas transport through the epikarst and the involved processes. Our results show that the cave gaseous concentration patterns do not only depend on the temperature-caused movement of air masses, but they can also be affected by abundant rainfall. The δO and δD composition of cave water also relies on such precipitations for the effective transfer of the rainfall signal into the cave, which can take between 3 and 7 days. The elemental ratios (Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca) show high responsiveness to the water drip rate, hinting that enhanced prior calcite precipitation (PCP) occurs at slower drip rates. Despite this, and regardless of drip rates, calcite saturation indices follow a seasonal variation pattern inversely proportional to the cave air CO concentration, while δC-DIC is proportional. Our results show how the interlinkage between these multiple components defines the dynamics of the atmosphere-soil-cave system. Cave monitoring is then essential to understand the karstic vadose zone, which is highly sensitive to climatic influence and its changes.
我们的研究旨在通过分析在西班牙东南部鲁尔洞穴中空气、水和固体中测量的大量气候和环境参数数据集（Rn、CO、滴速、化学成分和环境同位素），来评估构成和影响洞穴系统的各要素之间的复杂相互作用。特别重要的是要了解降雨和温度对通过表层岩溶带的水和气体传输及其相关过程的影响。我们的结果表明，洞穴气体浓度模式不仅取决于温度引起的气团运动，还可能受到大量降雨的影响。洞穴水的δO和δD组成也依赖于此类降水，以便将降雨信号有效传输到洞穴中，这一过程可能需要3至7天。元素比率（Sr/Ca和Mg/Ca）对水滴速率具有高度响应性，这表明在滴速较慢时会发生更强的前期方解石沉淀（PCP）。尽管如此，无论滴速如何，方解石饱和指数都遵循与洞穴空气CO浓度成反比的季节性变化模式，而δC-DIC则成正比。我们的结果表明，这些多个组成部分之间的相互联系如何定义了大气-土壤-洞穴系统的动态。因此，洞穴监测对于了解对气候影响及其变化高度敏感的岩溶渗流带至关重要。
